Retail shelves require frequent restocking of popular retail products, especially during busier times of the day or year, such as during the holidays. If a shelved product, particularly a popular product, has a decreased shelf supply or, even worse, is not available on a shelf when customers search for it, a retail facility may suffer lost sales. So, it would improve the customer experience and be economically beneficial for the retail facility to be proactive in managing the retail shelves and stock levels to avoid shelf stockouts.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.